I just want an HD radio

November 13, 2015 7:42 PM

My car (2010 vintage) is pre-HD radio. I want to get an HD radio for said car. I do not want a radio with all other kinds of stuff and HD. But, all of the HD radios come with full on radios and other bells and whistles. I have a perfectly nice radio, I just want the HD channels! Is this possible?
posted by tafetta, darling! to Technology (4 answers total)

Go to Crutchfield. Enter your make of car. See what fits.
posted by blob at 8:03 PM on November 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

There are plenty of portable HD radios with headphone outputs - you could hook one up to your car via the aux jack, if your car has one. You can probably find one that will recharge via USB, so you wouldn't have to constantly be switching batteries.
posted by kickingtheground at 9:10 PM on November 13, 2015

Yeah, that's what I did when HD Radio first came out. I bought a little Insignia portable at Best Buy and plugged it into the aux port.

Now, that thing lives in the drawer, because I love HD Radio so much (non-commercial stations have subchannels!) that I insist that any car I get have HD Radio in the tuner. That's a pretty easy rule to have these days since most cars have it.
posted by intermod at 10:55 PM on November 13, 2015

i may not be understanding (i had to go see what HD radio was, because i come from the land of DAB), but HD radio by design must include an "ordinary" AM/FM radio. that's just how they work. you can't really have the HD bit without the normal bit.
posted by andrewcooke at 6:33 AM on November 14, 2015 [1 favorite]